A Journey On Hills
Have you ever made an impulsive decision in your life? Of course you have. All people have at some point in their lives; it’s part of the adventure of being human. There are a lot of decisions I have made on a whim. Like moving to Colorado when I was 18 with only $1,000 dollars to my name, no job, and no place to stay, all because my relationship with the love of my life would have died if I didn’t do something drastic. It was the best decision of my life, but I looked back on it and thought it was kind of reckless. On occasion we have to take risks in life, right, a leap of faith if you will. That is exactly what Katie and I did.
As we packed up our car to head down from Colorado to Georgia we were both excited and apprehensive. We drove through Kansas City, Tennessee, and Georgia seeing family and friends before finally making it to training camp in Gainesville, Georgia. It was a long week of travel but needed. We had a lot of time to talk and get ready for whatever was to come. We parked the car, unpacked, and walked to the campsite area where we set up our tents and met our squad. Fifty-four people in all, 8 guys and 46 girls, it was a little overwhelming to say the least. Before we were on the squad we are with now (U squad), Katie and I were on two other squads with many different people. We were first on V squad but that was cancelled because not enough people signed up for it. Then we chose S squad but sadly that was cancelled due to not enough people raising the funds to leave. We had 48 hours to choose another route and we chose U squad after a lot of prayer. I could not have imagined a better squad than the one God chose for us because He knew we were supposed to be there.
Training camp was difficult and in the 10 days we were there, we covered so much information. We covered everything in the book: spiritual gifts, orphans, demonic spirits, praying well, recognizing the Holy Spirit, and much more. At times it felt overwhelming. On top of all the lectures we had, we also were doing team-building activities. Those activities were used to help our squad leaders and mentor put us in our first teams. Our first team was called Wildfire and included Jace Langley, John Singson, Amber Kay, Kelsey Pelletier, Racquel Cook, Katie and me. Even though many of us were not excited about our team members, we would later learn that this team would be our favorite of the three we were on.
There were many fantastic memories from training camp but it seems, when I think back, so long ago. There was the two-day 15 mile hike on the AT, or tarp night where it rained all day and night and we didn’t receive any sleep, or airport night with lights and white noise all night – not much sleep there either. But the memory of market night is the one I will remember the most. The 8 guys were split into 8 groups and the girls were divided amongst them. We were told to go into the market place set up by AIM and buy our dinner for the night. The market was full of people all playing a character. Some were police trying to bribe us, others venders trying to cheat us. The market was chaotic; cars drove through the market almost running people over, thieves tried to steal from you, guards tried to kidnap the girls. The market place was a very extreme and unlikely depiction was what it would be like around the world. I failed at this activity. Many of us did, but I took my failure to heart. At the end of it I wept for hours not because of failing the girls on my team or the situation of the market but because I looked passed the beggars, a mother and child, and a young man. I turned them away without a second thought. I was thinking about feeding the girls on my team not a mother and her child or a young man. But this broke me and I am not a person to cry often. I usually bottle up my emotions, although, for some reason God used this to be one of many reality checks on what type of person I am and the person He will mold me into.
The currency we used in the market was called “Jeffersons,” after one of the leaders at training camp. I kept one of them and wrote a small reminder on the back of it what I learned that night, “nothing is more important then to serve and give to others.” I regret that night every time I think about it, but I also remember the lesson I learned there. Is there a lesson God might be trying to show you? Is there something more important in your life that is getting in your way of giving the love of Christ to someone? Maybe it’s pride, fear, or even the lack of confidence. I urge you today to go out and serve in your communities, or a friend, or even have a friendly conversation with a complete stranger; you’ll be amazed what people will share if you only cared to give your attention to them. You never know, you might be whom God uses to lift them up and change their lives forever.
1 Corinthians 13
